english language curiosities - is.muni.cz · pdf file•famous for being created for marry...

English language curiosities

The longest words:

In Czech?

• Nejzdevětadevadesáteronásobitelnějšího

(38 letters)

• Nejneobhospodařovávanějšími

• Nejnevykrystalizovávatelnějšího

• Červenokostelecký

(the longest second name)

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoco

niosis

• The longest word in a major dictionary

• Coined to be the longest word

• From medicine

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrn

drobwllllantysiliogogogoch

That is a lovely town in a very pretty part of Wales.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

• Famous for being created for Marry

Poppins musical

smiles

• The nicest longest English word

The shortest word:

• A

• I

balloonneer

• The only word in the

English language that

has four sets of double

letters in row

Queue

• the only word that is

still pronounced the

same way when the

last four letters are

removed

The most common letter in English

E

This paragraph is not ordinary. Look at it. At first, it won´t look too odd. Just a normal paragraph – you may think. But look at it again and you might find it a bit unusual. Just a tiny bit. What´s wrong with it, you may ask? Nothing wrong at all, in fact: as I said, it´s just slightly unusual. It´s difficult to put it in words. Look again. Is anything not right? Can you spot it? Is anything … missing?

There was no letter E

• It´s the hardest kind of lipogram.

Lipogram

= a text written without using a particular

letter of the alphabet.

Almost

• the longest word with the letters in the

alphabetical order

In Czech?

• Mateřídoušky

• dvacetikoruny

• The words with all

vowels in order

• Abstemious,

• abstemiously,

• abstentious,

• adventitious,

• adventitiously,

• Arenicolous,

• arsenious

• cavernicolous

• the words with each of

the vowels, all in

order, none repeated

Subbookkeeper

• the only word with four pairs of double

letters in a row

= (a person who works underneath the main

bookkeeper)

Goddessship

• the only word in the English language with

a triple letter

In Czech?

• Nejstřeštěnější

• Přesvědčivější

• Scvrnkls

• Smrž pln skvrn zvlhl z

mlh.

• Slova s pěti háčky

• Nejdelší slovo bez

samohlásek

• Nejdelší věta bez

samohlásek.

Sentences

The quick brown fox jumps

over the lazy dog.

Pack my box with five dozen

liquor jugs

• Use every letter of the alphabet!

And Czech?

• Ulili-li liliputáni oheň včas, zabránili požáru.

• 5x the same syllable

• Nebudou se štítiti títi Ti ti tiší špehové do vazu?

• 9x

One word three times makes a

sentence:

• Kuli kuli kuli.

• (Kuliové kovali kouli.)

I am.

• The shortest complete sentence

No vowels in a Czech sentence

• Blb vlk pln žbrnd zdrhl hrd z mlh Brd skrz

vrch Smrk v čtvrť srn Krč.

• The longest Czech sentence without any

vowels.

• Smrk z Brd pln skvrn z mlh strhl smršť zrn

z prh.

(prha arnika – rostlina)

• Smrž pln skvrn zvlhl z mlh.

A bit shorter

Palindroms

a word or phrase that is the same whether it is

read forwards or backwards

• Madam I´m Adam.

• Sit on a potato pan, Otis.

Read the whole words:

• First ladies rule the State and state the rule:

ladies first.

Other palindroms

• Stressed or desserts

• Stop – pots

• Evil – live

• Star – rats

• Red rum, sir, is murder.

• Step on no pets.

• Eva, can I see bees in a cave?

• No lemon, no melon.

The longest Czech one-word

palindroms

• Nepochopen

• Nezasazen

• Nepotopen

• nezařazen

… and sentences?

• Kobyla má malý bok.

• Fešná paní volá: Má málo vína pan šéf?

• Do chladu si masa mísu dal Chod.

• Sabina hrává na varhany bas.

• Jelenovi pivo nelej.

• Umírá na rýmu.

• A dál vidí lítat netopýry potentát i lid, i

vláda.

• Co nám nedá den, má noc.

From politics

• I zeman ležel na mezi.

• A kníže je žínka.

From maths

• 19.9.1991

Strange meanings?

• They were too close to the door to close it.

• Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a

tear.

• I had to subject the subjest to a series of

tests.

Is English logical?

• Noses can run and feet can smell.

• If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a

humanitarian eat?

• There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in

hamburger; neither apple nor pine in

pineapple.

• When the stars are out, they are visible; but

when the lights are out they are invisible.

Q-game

• Quapem přiquačil qartál a qelikému

přeqapení qalita qasinek qůli qvantu

dodávqázne. Qasinky neqasí.

What is hidden in the Czech

word

• ÚSPĚCH

• SPĚCH

PECH

ECH!